I had originally posted in Part 5 back in August (time flies!!!) about starting the journey to FTTPoD in Northern Ireland.
My timeline thus far...
04/08/2019 - Contacted Amvia about raising an order for FTTPoD
05/08/2019 - Received a prompt response, they also mentioned we could avail of the government gigabit voucher scheme (up to £2,500) for businesses, this voucher could also be combined with other business premises close by. So, I got to work contacting other interested parties.
07/08/2019 - Unable to receive a desktop quote from Amvia due to location (I had also contacted FluidOne prior to Amvia, there desktop quote equated to £45,000 and were pushing a leased line option, so they were swiftly put to one side).
07/08/2019 - I raised a linked order, it involves 2 separate businesses close by each other. A good opportunity to avail of up to £5,000 towards the install costs. To get the ball rolling we paid £300 to get an onsite survey to better understand how much it would all cost and how viable it was.
14/08/2019 - Started to receive weekly messages that were semi generic, explaining that they were pushing the carrier for a survey date and explained there was a back log. This same email came weekly until 16/10/2019
16/10/2019 - Received notification that an Openreach planner had a slot available for 21/10/19 and ask if this suited. I accepted.
21/10/2019 - Met the surveyor at 9am, friendly chap who went over the process and what he needed from me. He was very accommodating and was happy to take on board that we were keen to be involved as much as possible to reduce over heads and keep things moving.
He also was able to give me detail on where my closest NGA node was. Thankfully this was relatively close. It is at the edge of our farm property, a lot of ducting will be required to get it to our premise, but literally only 15 meters of ducting is needed to get it to our boundary before we take it the rest of the way.
One worrying thing I got from the surveyor was that the order that came through on his end only included our property, not the other property we were wanting to link up with. He said he would take note of it and that I should follow up with Amvia.
Later on the 21st I sent and email to Amvia saying the surveyor had been there but only one property was on the surveyors order sheet to be surveyed.
22/10/2019 - Amvia responded to say they would investigate this with the carrier and confirm the order type.
the wait would now begin....
30/10/2019 - The now updated weekly generic mails began again saying results to the survey were expected in 10-18 working days.
I followed up asking whether there was any news back on the additional property. I was advised it was still being investigated.
20/12/2019 - Slight change to the weekly update email, it states "It has been noted that as this is a linked order, our Wholesale Account Manager is still going over a few points with Openreach which need to be clarified before the results can be issued.
Please note however that we will continue to press both the Carrier as well as the Operator regularly on a daily basis for this sought information to be given and you will be contacted immediately once the official results of your site survey have been received. "
The wait continues..
03/01/2020 - An email explaining there was an 'Operator Christmas freeze period' hat just ended and I should expect to receive a more detailed report on my survey within 3-5 days. Happy days I thought!
10/01/2020 - Received an update "Unfortunately, Openreach generated the ECC�s as a Singleton order which was incorrect.
This has been raised with them and they are currently liaising with the ECC�s department within Openreach to provide the correct format as soon as possible.
A soon as we have the correct ECC�s we will forward these onto you.
Next report due in 5-7 working days."
Unsure as to what that all means, but is kinda what I had thought had happened on the day of the original survey.
I queried Amvia, requesting I got the results of the singleton order, as I was curious as to what the costings were. I don't think they'd increase much with the additional property included and would give me an idea as to how viable this all was.
Amvia replied to advise me that they were not forwarded the costs of the singleton order (I thought this was strange).
16/01/2020 - Weekly update emails began again, they were as follows:
"This is just to advise that we are still pushing for the correct results to be issued.
The moment we receive this information you will be notified immediately."
13/02/2020 - I was advised that a surveyor would attend on the 21/02/2020 to survey both properties.
(Something I thought was going to have to take place after speaking to the first surveyor).
21/02/2020 - Different surveyor attended. Just as friendly and easy to talk to. He was again happy to take into account that we would do as much as possible to reduce overheads and external contractors.
He surveyed both properties and was at a loss to understand (like me) why communication between all parties involved is so poor.
But more than happy we can (hopefully) move onto the next stage.
I am under the impression the order was rejected by the CP, I believe the CP is Amvia (but could be wrong), I'd be interested to know why they couldn't tell me they were the ones that rejected the original costings.
26/02/2020 - I got an email from the surveyor with some maps to help me plan the logistics of ducting and chamber boxes in anticipation of the order going forward.
Results and costings of survey have been sent to whoever is next in the chain. So I can only hope everything is in order.
I'm still not convinced it's a linked order so I don't know if we will be able to get the additional £2,500. He did say it had come in as a new order and he was aware of 2 properties needing surveyed, however there was still only one address on the order sheet, not two.
The wait continues.......
Edited by deleted (Wed 26-Feb-20 22:24:46)
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